Alameda, Oakland in fresh fight over traffic

More than a decade ago, Oakland’s city attorney sued Alameda over plans to redevelop Alameda Point. In the suit, his office claimed Alameda’s analysis of the proposed development’s impacts failed to adequately study and propose solutions for the traffic it would pump into Oakland’s Chinatown neighborhood.

Today that onetime city attorney, John Russo, is spearheading efforts to redevelop the Point as Alameda’s city manager. And as Alameda finalizes a new study of the development’s potential impacts, he is facing some of the same charges he lodged in his 2003 suit.

In a pair of letters, Oakland’s top planner and a coalition of Chinatown groups said Alameda’s plans for 1,425 homes and 8,900 jobs at Alameda Point will create more traffic and pollution in Chinatown than the Island’s recently released analysis of the proposed development’s impacts lets on. And they said Alameda needs to propose and fund fixes that will diminish traffic and keep Chinatown’s pedestrians safe.

“The redevelopment of Alameda Point is important to all of us in the Bay Area. However, it should not proceed at the expense of Chinatown,” the Oakland Chinatown Coalition wrote.

But Russo, who once represented Chinatown as an Oakland city councilman, said his former legal complaint against Alameda is “moot” because Oakland is planning so much development in the vicinity of Chinatown – about 15,000 new homes and tens of thousands of new jobs – that the impacts of developing Alameda Point will be inconsequential in comparison.

“They’re positing 10 times as much housing,” Russo said. “Why pick on us?”